A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down. And apparently, the New York Stock Exchange thinks the same thing when it comes to gamification and compliance training.
This week we learned that the NYSE has acquired True Office for an undisclosed sum. True Office, which demoed its technology as part of FinovateEurope 2013, specializes in using gamification to help companies and institutions provide regulatory compliance training to their employees.
“I think we’re all guilty of actually gaming the system, having the training on a second screen and flicking through it as fast as an iTunes agreement,” True Office founder and CEO Adam Sodowich said from the stage at the 2013 conference. “And companies are spending vast amounts of time and treasure in this area with little or no return on their investment.”
True Office puts a human face on regulatory and compliance issues, using simulations and scenarios to challenge understanding on issues ranging from money laundering and bribery to KYC and authentication. The interface is designed to make the experience interesting and engaging for workers, while giving administrators quantifiable ROI through real-time testing, assessment, and risk analytics.
Tellingly, True Office was accompanied in its FinovateEurope 2013 presentation by Thomson Reuters, a heavyweight in the financial services industry and fellow Finovate alum. Given True Office’s relationship with Thomson Reuters – the technology demoed was the True Office | Thomson Reuters Anti Money Laundering desktop and mobile app – it becomes easier to see how and why the NYSE’s interest in the company would have been piqued.
The goal is to add True Office to the mix of products and services currently offered by NYSE Governance Services. Scott Hill, CFO of the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent company of the NYSE, referred to the acquisition in an earnings call earlier this month as a way to “enhance our role as thought leaders in the Governance Risk Compliance setting.”
True Office was founded in January 2010, and is headquartered in New York.